Apparatus for the lubricating and cleaning of elongated articles is known in a variety of forms and generally utilizes a lubricating shoe which can straddle the rail or chain and has brushes which bear against the rail or chain so that, upon relative movement of the article and the lubricating shoe, e.g. by drawing the chain through the shoe or by moving the shoe along the rail, the brushes can clean contaminants from the article and apply a substantially uniform coating of the lubricant to the article.
The shoe is usually associated with a lubricant feeder which can be controlled to provide a certain amount of the lubricant upon the article.
One prior art device of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,637 and comprises a cylindrical lubricating shoe from which the brushes project at angles of 120.degree. to one another and one side of the cylinder wall of which is open to allow the vehicle chain, e.g. of a bicycle or motorcycle, to be inserted into the cylindrical housing.
The brushes are carried by respective bodies which can be slid into grooves of the cylindrical carrier. A single bore is provided in one of these brush bodies for delivering the lubricant to it via a long pipe from the head of a gas-pressurized lubricant container. The device must be manually operated and because of its construction cannot assure a uniform distribution of the lubricant on all sides of the chain.
Since the lubricant supply utilizes a relatively small opening, distribution is a problem, especially since the lubricating device is relatively short. The lubricant feed tends to be stopped up. The cost of the unit is considerable and its manipulation requires a certain degree of dexterity. The dismounting of the brushes is problemmatical and cleaning of the device is likewise a problem and is time consuming.
Another apparatus for applying a material to an elongated member is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,823,797 which uses a ring-shaped shoe open at one side for the lubrication of cables. While the lubricant is applied from one side to a multiplicity of orifices, the uniform distribution of the lubricant remains problemmatical. A circular array of brushes may be employed here or the brushes can be provided on two shanks which form a V with one another, i.e. are divergent from one another. In this system dismounting for replacement of the brush units is not provided for and may not be possible. The application of the lubricant takes place over a very small length cable and hence uniform lubrication of an elongated body cannot be assured.